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[WaPo] Trump plans $200M overhaul of East Wing in significant change to White House

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Os Trigonum, Jul 31, 2025.

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  1. Ubiquitin

    Ubiquitin Member
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    I would be OK if Trump installing updated plumbing. Not OK with him tearing down the White House to build a house he’ll never move out of.
     
    #61 Ubiquitin, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM
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  2. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    I expect we will have to spend millions redecorating after Trump departs to remove all that tacky gold crap. Which is fine. Presidents redecorate when they move in. I'm fine with Trump having all his gold crap while he is there. That's the image he wants to project. It hopefully won't suit the next guy.
     
    #62 JuanValdez, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM
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  3. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Member
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    The following is from an email newsletter from The Bulwark. No direct link, sorry.


    -----

    What is the limiting principle on Trump’s destruction of the East Wing?

    There are only two possible energy states here:

    (1) The White House is a national landmark and the property of the American people. Presidents are tenants. They may make cosmetic alterations, but nothing more. Larger alterations must be acts of government, undertaken only after due consideration, with inputs from the various stakeholders, and the express consent of the governed as demonstrated by lawfully appropriated funding to execute any such projects.

    (2) The president is not a tenant, but a lord. He owns the White House and can do whatever he wants to it. No questions asked.

    That’s it. There are no other options.

    This week’s demolition of the East Wing makes clear that we are living in the second scenario. There are no limiting principles for this state of affairs. So answer me this:

    If Trump decided to bulldoze the entire White House complex, pave it over, and move the seat of executive power permanently to Camp David, or Mar-a-Lago, or Moscow, could he do that?

    I know what you’re thinking. JVL, that’s absurd. He couldn’t do that.

    Well please explain to me: Why not?...
     
    #63 Ottomaton, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:24 PM
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2025 at 8:28 PM
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  4. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    I just hope there IS a next guy...
     
    #64 Andre0087, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:41 PM
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  5. ima_drummer2k

    ima_drummer2k Member

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    Trump's plans for Washington:

    [​IMG]
     
    #65 ima_drummer2k, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:42 PM
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  6. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    No matter how pessimistic you get, remember every man must eventually die. So there will definitely be a next guy. The circumstances of his ascension to power might be unclear, but there is always a next guy.


    Trump is going to suck all the color out of Washington DC! Diabolical!
     
    #66 JuanValdez, Oct 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM
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  7. JoeBarelyCares

    JoeBarelyCares Member

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    Swinging the wrecking ball is what this President does best. He's real good at tearing things down. As to building things back up, his talent lies in putting his name on buildings that other people build. To put it another way, he's good at seeing the direction the parade is going, and then running out in front of the parade.
     
    #67 JoeBarelyCares, Oct 23, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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  8. astros123

    astros123 Member
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    Government shutdown and millions of people about to lose their Healthcare and this is the main priority. Unreal
     
    #68 astros123, Oct 23, 2025 at 2:08 PM
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  9. Jugdish

    Jugdish Member

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    [​IMG]
     
    #69 Jugdish, Oct 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
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  10. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    Looks like an upgrade.
     
    #70 JuanValdez, Oct 23, 2025 at 2:21 PM
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  11. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Okogie Only Fan
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    Screenshot 2025-10-23 at 5.16.17 PM.png
     
    #71 Os Trigonum, Oct 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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  12. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    [​IMG]
     
    #72 Deckard, Oct 23, 2025 at 6:08 PM
  13. adoo

    adoo Member

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    thru extortion,

    ​

    Who is paying for the East Wing ballroom?
    White House list includes tech, crypto giants.

    Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Apple are among a list of donors the White House said is paying for the addition. Others include Coinbase, Ripple and Tether, along with several big-name investors in the tech space, including Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.




    Here's the full list of 37 donors released by the White House.

    • Altria Group
    • Amazon
    • Apple
    • Booz Allen Hamilton
    • Caterpillar
    • Coinbase
    • Comcast Corporation
    • J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
    • Hard Rock International
    • Google
    • HP
    • Lockheed Martin
    • Meta Platforms
    • Micron Technology
    • Microsoft
    • NextEra Energy
    • Palantir Technologies
    • Ripple
    • Reynolds American
    • T-Mobile
    • Tether America
    • Union Pacific Railroad
    • Adelson Family Foundation
    • Stefan E. Brodie
    • Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
    • Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
    • Edward and Shari Glazer
    • Harold Hamm
    • Benjamin Leon Jr.
    • The Lutnick Family
    • The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
    • Stephen A. Schwarzmann
    • Konstantin Sokolov
    • Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
    • Paolo Tiramani
    • Cameron Winklevoss
    • Tyler Winklevoss
    ​
     
    #73 adoo, Oct 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM
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  14. raining threes

    raining threes Member

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    None of this matters to me, how the building turns out bothers me. Not having taxpayers pay for the construction matters to me. If built right and beautiful matters to me and it should matter to you too. Trump's background is in construction he's going to have it built fast and if it's anything like what he's built in the past it will be beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished produt.

    BTW, Trump's not the 1st POTUS to have the White House renovated. Otherwise it would be the same as it was back in the 1700's. Fact is most people b****ing are b****ing because Trump is the POTUS doing the renovating.
     
    #74 raining threes, Oct 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM
  15. Commodore

    Commodore Member

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    #75 Commodore, Oct 24, 2025 at 8:36 AM
  16. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Okogie Only Fan
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    lol. guess we've really got the b*stard now

    Screenshot 2025-10-24 at 12.28.01 PM.png
     
    #76 Os Trigonum, Oct 24, 2025 at 11:30 AM
  17. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Okogie Only Fan
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    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-...lroom-74dfbc56?mod=Searchresults&pos=1&page=1

    Trump’s Big, Beautiful Ballroom
    Critics of White House renovations also hated Jefferson’s colonnades and Truman’s balcony.
    By The Editorial Board
    Oct. 23, 2025 12:00 pm ET

    The latest sign of incipient authoritarianism is apparently that President Trump is building a ballroom. After photos hit the wires showing construction equipment at the White House, tearing into the East Wing, critics lamented the lost quarters of the social secretary and the calligraphy office. Some urged Democrats to run in 2028 on a promise to raze Mr. Trump’s ballroom.

    Take a breath, folks. There really is a case for a larger hall at the White House for holding big state dinners and other events, without having to pitch enormous tents on the South Lawn. Mr. Trump’s taste in decor runs toward garish, and there can be reasonable complaints about historical preservation, the architectural footprint, the lack of transparency on the private funding for this project, and the like.

    But adding a ballroom to the White House isn’t destroying it, much less democracy, and controversy over such renovations is almost as old as the republic. The nonprofit White House Historical Association has an enlightening essay on the subject, written by the group’s president, Stewart McLaurin.

    Thomas Jefferson’s addition of the east and west colonnades “faced immediate criticism for their cost and perceived extravagance,” he writes. Federalists in Congress said the columned walkways had a whiff of aristocracy unbefitting the building’s democratic simplicity.

    Today it’s hard to imagine the White House without the North Portico, but when it was added under Andrew Jackson, it was called costly and ostentatious, Mr. McLaurin writes. Under Theodore Roosevelt, putting up the West Wing required removing glasshouses used for growing plants. One newspaper report said those alterations to the White House had “destroyed its historic value.”

    Critics didn’t like TR’s huntsman taxidermy. They didn’t like the addition of the Truman Balcony within the South Portico. They didn’t like Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden. They didn’t like the historical loss when Richard Nixon covered Franklin Roosevelt’s swimming pool to create the White House briefing room. What would the press say if Mr. Trump wanted to restore it to FDR’s swimming pool?

    The point is that a government office—and that’s what the White House is, aside from an official residence—can’t be set in amber, unchanging for all time. If Mr. Trump’s ballroom is a useful addition, perhaps his successors will warm to it, even if they sandblast away every golden surface. If it isn’t, then it can make way for something else that will help the President do the job for which the people elected him.

    Appeared in the October 24, 2025, print edition as 'Trump’s Big, Beautiful Ballroom'.


    ​
     
    #77 Os Trigonum, Oct 24, 2025 at 11:40 AM
  18. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    Oh my god is Mia Farrow overreacting on the internet


    It says "everybody can reply", go teach her a lesson !
     
    #78 ThatBoyNick, Oct 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
  19. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Okogie Only Fan
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    she's a Democratic thought leader . . . show her some respect
     
    #79 Os Trigonum, Oct 24, 2025 at 11:48 AM
  20. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Okogie Only Fan
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    #80 Os Trigonum, Oct 24, 2025 at 11:50 AM
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